


Elizabeth Midford Phantomhive and Mey-Rin: Nostalgia

by TastingLatte



Series: Feelings: A Series of One-Shots [13]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: F/M, Gen, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-22 01:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8267815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TastingLatte/pseuds/TastingLatte
Summary: After something goes wrong, their men don't come home, the small memories creep in, like the cold winter ice spreads over the windows. Does one dwell in the past, or can one move into the future, melting the cold?Part of the Feelings: A Series of One-Shots series.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Because there needs to be more mature Elizabeth fics out there showing a happy marriage could be had. And because I love Sebastian and Mey-Rin having a happy family as well. (and you didn't see that coming from me, did you? hahah...)

NOSTALGIA

Her fingers twirled around her hair as she gazed out the windows, streaked with snow, and the crackling ice that clung to the glass. She smiled absentmindedly. It clung like the ice and the glass were lovers, knowing, even as the day went on, and they tried to cling to each other, they would both loose. Someone would change, someone would remain. And as all love stories - true ones - they would try to summon the other back.

There was a sigh and a slow blink, head in the hands that had held his for as long as she was able, and then she slowly slipped down the hallway. She passed their portrait, painted two years ago, so beautifully done, so lovingly hung. But he had gone a few weeks ago, and she wasn't sure where, why, when, or even if her deepest fears were true. But her heart beat for him, as it always had. Her protector, and the one she protected.

A small patter of feet and a small giggle made her turn again down the hall and watch as her own boy teetered in a run. His legs were strong and his eyes bright blue, so much like his father, so much like the boy she knew when they grew up.

"Ma… ma…!"

"George, you are supposed to be in bed, taking a nap. Auntie Mey can't be running around after you like this."

Mey-Rin had come around the corner, carrying Grace in her arms and smiled softly at Lady Phantomhive. "I'm sorry, I was so tried, and he now can climb out of his bed. A right rascal that one!" She pinched the chubby cheeks lightly and elicited another giggle from George Phantomhive. "Going to run around the Manor at all hours I suspect," she added, stiffling a yawn.

"Mey-Rin," Elizabeth said, turning her green eyes, slightly watering now, to her friend and maid. "I… I miss him," she finished in a whisper and clutched George to her chest, making him hug her neck so he was not crushed. "So much."

And Mey-Rin shifted her own toddler on her hip and put an arm around her mistress and nodded. "As do I. Both of them gone make the place too quiet."

Elizabeth's curly hair bounced again as she nodded, trying to keep the tears at bay. But she found herself guided by the steady hand of a woman whose own love story was like the ice and glass. The maid and the butler, a scandal at the heart of a proud Noble Family. But even as Mey-Rin and the Head Butler fell in love, so did she and the master of the house. Again. Finally, fully, and securely.

She sat George down in his bed, and he smiled, so bright, so innocently, her heart broke for her own bright eyed blue man. She blinked the tears quickly away and tucked him in. She watched, carefully drinking in each movement, filing away for the day she didn't have these moments anymore, as George fought for a few more precious awaking moments, and finally succumbed to the sleep he needed.

Elizabeth turned and saw Mey-Rin had placed her own child down and was doing the same. The two woman, after their respective husbands and lovers had vanished after a rather short job on the English Channel coast, had bonded deeper and had decided to support each other with their children. Elizabeth's hand settled unconsciously over her stomach as they closed the door.

"Are you alright? Tea?"

Elizabeth had completely forgotten to tell her confidant her and her husbands news - "We are expecting again!" - and watched as Mey-Rin's face lit up and she pulled her mistress down the hall, away from the children and flung her arms around the woman.

"I'm so excited for you both!"

"He needs to come home - they both do."

Mey-Rin pulled away and glanced at the portiat of the Lord and Lady Phantomhive. "Yes, yes they do."

They walked down to the sitting room, Elizabeth once more settling in front of a frosted window. She placed a hand on the window and relished how it demanded to take her warmth away and replace it with the cold. She shook her head and pulled her fingers back. No, she would not have any coldness in her heart over the man she loved with all of it. She would not raise her children alone. She would not let the memories of two children playing and laughing all over the Manor not be mirrored in her own children. They would have happy memories of their parents. Both of them. She stood and walked with a fire that would have melted both ice and glass, making them united at last.

Opening the sword case, which was for both practical use and show, she selected one of the finest long, thin, blades she had. And as she set it cutting, whizzing in the air, she closed her eyes at the sound. It was a memory of a time she had set the blade to her betrothed, it was a memory of when she was controlled by fear and doubt, by longing and mindless stupidity.

"I shall crush your enemies, as they are mine," she whispered as she looked up the stairs and saw the proud portrait of the Phantomhive family, the former Earl and Lady Phantomhive, hanging next to the one they would soon update when their next child arrived. "I don't want to dwell in the past with you, my love - but in the future."


End file.
